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Unformatted text preview: GOG 220 Urban Geography Class #13 (3/11) Urban Theory II: Post-Structuralism/ Postmodernism Case Study VIII: Los Angeles at the Century’s End/in the Future? Reading : Hubbard Ch 1, 42-58 Hubbard Ch 1, 42-58 critiques of Marxist urbanism came from many sources, including feminism and postcolonialism , arguing (to simplify, see pp. 42-43) that other variables, such as ethnicity, race, gender, and history -- not just class and class conflict, as the Marxist would have it -- are significant in shaping cities; in other words, it is essential to focus of the issues of difference and diversity … another critique came from the poststructuralists they -- for example Michel Foucault -- argued that other variables such as language, relationships of power, and most significantly, culture/culture differences need to be considered as at least as important as class and economic variables (p. 43-46)… further critiques were based on new observations about the post-industrial city (see Hall, ad Hubbard pp. 47-49): gated communities emerging “edge cities” the donut effect; centerless cities multicentric cities new industrial spaces focus on consumption, recreation, fantasy, stimulation (“needs” replaced by “wants”) new forms of “surveillance” (eg CCTV; secutiry consciousness) new architectural and design forms rise of the services sector (esp “producer services”) In sum… “the postindustrial city is…more flexible, complex and divided than its predecessor, with the ordered and production-based logic of the industrial era giving way to a more invidious mode of social control based on one’s role as consumer-citizen” (Hubbard, p. 49) the splintered, spread-out, decentered, patchwork, diverse, niche-focussed etc city can best be characterized by the term postmodern; s ee Box 1.3, p. 50 Ed Soja Postmodern Geographies (focussing on LA) “The dazzling array of sites in this compartmentalized corona of the inner city “A polycentric, polyglot, polycultural city” so, the “LA school” of UG replaces the old “Chicago school”; see, the “pseudo- random patchwork of balkanized industrial, consumer and residential landscapes” of the PM city (Fig 1.1, p. 55) Harvey argues that all of this (eg the pastiche, the new imagery, the focus on consumption in the PM city) is nothing more than the outcome of advanced capitalism… the desire to sell everything to everyone… this stance has also been critiqued extensively, in part for being too closely tied into the modernist theories of Marxism (in Harvey’s case), and being blind to the nuances of difference, culture, ethnicity, gender, postcolonialism etc (p. 52-53) revisiting Postmodern theory PM challenges the modernist beliefs/“master narratives” associated with: “progress,” “truth,” “human improvement,” “high art,” “science,” “technology;” PM challenges the assumption that these “narratives” will lead humans to a greater sense...
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